A Spirit Lake activist pushing to make animal cruelty a felony in Idaho is speaking out against proposed legislation to accomplish just that, convinced other interests won't get the job done right.

"The world is not going to come to an end if this doesn't get fixed, but our civilization is the worse for it," said Tony Mangan, president of Panhandle Equine Rescue.

Mangan is also co-founder of Idaho 1 Of 3 - as in, Idaho is one of only three states in the U.S. lacking felony penalties for animal cruelty. The Humane Society of the U.S., a national animal protection nonprofit, just ranked Idaho as 50th for effective animal protection laws, which Mangan believes is partly because animal cruelty is only punishable as a misdemeanor here.

"There's no reasonable reason why (an animal cruelty felony) shouldn't be in place," he said.

That's why 1 Of 3 is straining to make the April 30 deadline to collect 48,000 signatures to put an initiative on the ballot amending Idaho's Animal Care Law to include felony penalties for repeat violations and torture.

"We're about 30,000 behind," he conceded, adding that it's difficult achieving valid signatures meeting specific voter registration criteria.

But the issue is one close to Mangan's heart. His equine rescue organization has repeatedly seen situations where animals were undernourished, neglected, starved to death, he said, only to see owners punished with a misdemeanor charge or a minor fine.

He has also observed law enforcement officials organizing care plans with owners when he believes the animals should just be removed, which he attributes to the law being too vague on when an animal can and should be taken away.

"What I'm talking about is beyond the comprehension of a normal human being," Mangan said of some treatment he has observed.

Creating felony violations for animal abuse will hopefully clear up standards for law enforcement on when to remove animals and allow rescue groups to step in, he said. He also hopes to see more fitting punishment for severe animal mistreatment.

"I was president of this (organization) for almost a year until I realized we were doing nothing. We were saving one animal of every 10," Mangan said. "We needed to change the law so that law enforcement would be obligated to enforce it."

Different Ideas

He's not alone in his thinking.

The Idaho Cattle Association has indicated it's proposing a bill this legislative session that would make animal cruelty a felony upon a third violation within 5 years.

Mangan's group is frustrated by the idea, he said.

Five years is too short a time frame to wrack up multiple charges, Mangan said, pointing out that Idaho's current law accrues fines and jail time for three violations within 15 years.

"The penalties they are inserting will never be applied," Mangan said of the ICA proposal. "They're changing it to five years, but it takes almost two years for them to get to court, if they're cited."

His group's co-founder, Virginia Hemingway in Boise, is also concerned the proposed bill wouldn't include mandatory sentencing, or a definition of torture that 1 Of 3 is proposing.

"In Idaho, judges tend not to use the penalties they could even in the misdemeanors, without any mandatory sentencing guidelines," Hemingway explained.

Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, said he is part of a group of legislators working with the ICA to create a bill, which he expected to be introduced in the next couple of weeks.

It was the 1 Of 3 ballot initiative that kicked the ICA and the legislature into action, he said.

"I think the legislators and the cattlemen want to push their own legislation, because it gives them more control on what is said in the code and on statutes," Trail said. "Sometimes initiatives are vaguely worded."

The 5-year time frame in the original draft could be extended by 10 years to a lifetime, Trail assured.

The bill will "most definitely" include mandatory sentencing, he added, and he expects definitions of torture and cruelty to be tightened, as well.

"I think it will get passed," he said. "The general favor that Idahoans look on this type of legislation should be enough to be the tipping point."

An ICA spokesperson could not be reached for an interview.

Hoping to expedite the bill's creation, the HSUS has also gotten involved with legislators' discussions on the bill, said Lisa Kauffman, Idaho state director for HSUS.

"We need this," she said. "A lot of animals out there are being abused on a daily basis, and people aren't being held accountable, because there's no law out there to do so."

Resolved to see the felony penalty happen, the HSUS has a plan B, Kauffman added.

If legislation isn't successful, the nonprofit will launch its own ballot initiative to make animal cruelty a first degree felony.

"We have the money to do it, the manpower to do it, the expertise to do it," she said, noting that the group has 39,000 members in Idaho that can contribute signatures. "But I think we have a really good working group right now between the cattleman's association and the legislators looking at sponsoring a bill in the Legislature."

Pros and Cons

Sen. Tim Corder, who has pursued animal protection legislation in the past, said he's dubious of making animal cruelty a felony because there is no evidence it deters animal abuse.

"My approach before and still is, try to identify what the problem is you're trying to solve and build the legislation to solve that problem," he said.

The Mountain Home Republican would prefer more focus on funding prosecution, he said.

"There's nothing in this current proposal that would do that," Corder said of the ICA proposal.

Corder wasn't as familiar with the 1 Of 3 initiative, but he noted that creating felony penalties won't instantly make animal cruelty cases higher priorities.

"If you were a prosecuting attorney and had 10 cases on your desk, and 9 of them had to do with children or adults or some other felonious activity, and one of them had to do with a person with too many cats, which one would you keep on the bottom of the pile?" he said.

Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, said creating felony charges could be a good idea.

"I've seen some indications that animal cruelty is a precursor to other problems," Vick said. "There are certainly levels of animal cruelty that should be a felony, for the reasons that people can be supervised and that sort of thing better."

A Real Problem

Animal abuse is a pretty significant problem in Kootenai County, said Lt. Stuart Miller with the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.

Cases have ranged from folks not properly feeding and sheltering their animals, he said, to an individual harboring wild animals in her house in such a poor manner that several creatures had to be put down.

"I don't think we truly have a lot of felony-type cases," Miller said. "But it would be nice to have that (felony option), for punishment to fit the crime."

For most situations, a plan of action is created and monitored to ensure the animals receive better care, he said, though sometimes animals are seized and misdemeanor charges filed.

Miller would like to see legislation defining levels of cruelty between misdemeanor and felony, he said, like what exists for child abuse.

He would also love more funding for prosecution, he added, for both animal and human cases.

"It's not that we're looking to put more people in jail, but we'd like more teeth in the laws to do so and hold more people accountable," he said.

Mangan's Goal

Under Idaho's current animal cruelty law, fines start at $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense within 10 years and $500 for a third offense within 15 years.

Jail time has a 6-month, 9-month and 12-month maximum for each offense.

Idaho 1 Of 3's initiative would add felony prison penalties for third violations within 15 years, and would add a definition for animal torture. Misdemeanor fines would be increased to at least $400 and $600 for first and second offenses.

The measure would also include new provisions allowing law enforcement officers to take possession of abused animals, and for courts to terminate a person's right of possession, care or custody of an animal.

"Those are the things giving it its strength," Mangan said. "Law enforcement will be forced to act in a certain way."

For more information, go to: Idaho1of3.org.

Mangan isn't sure if his group can collect all the signatures, he acknowledged. And the group's efforts might be eclipsed by the Legislature's.

But 1 Of 3 will keep at it as long as it can, he said, with one eye on the others racing for a felony provision.

"We're not going to stop, no matter what," he said.